Elfish, by luck, although she later claimed it as deliberate, had now somersaulted entirely and, like a diver who has successfully completed a complicated series of twists and turns in the air before ending up in precisely the right position to enter the water, landed safely. She came to ground on her feet, knees slightly bent, rather like an experienced parachute jumper. She was jarred by the impact, but unharmed.
Elfish gazed at the struggling mass of bodies in front of her.
“Well, thank you,” she said. “You saved my life.”
“You stupid bitch, Elfish,” said May, disentangling herself from the melee. She glowered at Aran, swore loudly, then proceeded to haul herself on stage where she unceremoniously plugged in her guitar and started to play. Gail followed her. After a brief hesitation Casaubon did likewise and the band lurched into their first number, a numbingly loud cover version of Ministry’s “Jesus Built My Hot Rod.” Elfish, after some confusion while she unwrapped her guitar lead from round her neck, made it back on stage, planted herself in front of the microphone and began to sing.
By now the audience was in a frenzy, having witnessed the most spectacular introduction to a gig ever seen in Brixton. Already mesmerised by Elfish’s jarring performance of Shakespeare they were thrilled beyond measure by her spectacular stage dive and the scramble that followed. Consequently they were more than willing to give a sympathetic listening to the band, although, being under-rehearsed, they were still not very good.
sixty-nine
SO ELFISH GOT to call her band Queen Mab, as Cary and Lilac happily reported to John Mackie later. They themselves had not rushed forward to save her because they had assumed that, as an experienced stage diver, Elfish knew what she was doing. They continued to hide their savings in the tin in the garden, confidently assuming that the money would now be safe. Unwise, perhaps, with Elfish living next door, but they were like that.
Although Elfish seemed to be forgiven by those people she had lied to, she was not forgiven by Tula and Lizzy for her behaviour towards May. It is often the way that the friends of the victim will go on being resentful long after the victim herself has forgotten all about it. Elfish would not admit to caring either way.
She was gloriously happy after her success, so happy that on her next visit to Aran she allowed him to put her in the bath, from where she emerged clean but melancholy.
“Now I’ve achieved what I wanted to achieve I don’t know what to do,” she said.
Aran refrained from any useless advice, knowing that Elfish would simply carry on as usual for a while, drinking and playing pool, before finding the urge to get on with things again, particularly as she now had a band to look after. This would no doubt involve much trauma, and probably the violent abuse and sacking of all the members, and would suit Elfish fine. So he diverted her attention from her melancholy with a cheerful tale about the arrest, trial and execution of some Athenian captains, and asked her if she would be willing to encourage her band to smoke a little more. He was still on the trail of card number twenty, and time was running out.
As for Mo, he was surprised to find that he did not mind too much how things had turned out. He had to find another name for his band but the world was full of names. Every day Cody would suggest a new one, usually with some reference to Ben Jonson or some other unsuitable person. Mo rejected all of these, but something would turn up. Furthermore, he was very happy with Amnesia. They made an excellent couple, and while no one was about to give Elfish any credit for this, it could well be said that she was responsible for bringing them together.
Copyright © 2010 by Martin Millar.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Millar, Martin.
Dreams of sex and stage diving / Martin Millar.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
eISBN : 978-1-593-76366-4
1. Women rock musicians—Fiction. 2. London (England)—Fiction. I. Title.
PR6063.I34D74 2010
823’.914—dc22
2009043452
Soft Skull Press
An imprint of Counterpoint LLC
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Martin Millar, Dreams of Sex and Stage Diving
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